Tuesday, 24 December 2013

CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN HIJACKED!

CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN HIJACKED TO BECOME POLITICAL WARFARE
AGAINST ISRAEL. ITS ORIGINAL SPIRITUAL
MEANING SUCKED DRY, REPLACING A JEWISH JESUS WITH A FALSE PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE
THAT DEMONISES AND DELEGITIMISES THE JEWISH STATE.

I HAVE BEEN HIGHLIGHTING HOW THIS TRANSLATES INTO ACTION AT CHRISTMAS
TIME. IT MAKES FOR INTERESTING, BUT HARROWING, READING.

IN IRELAND, THE PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN IS SELLING CHRISTMAS
CARDS SHOWING THREE WISE MEN DENIED ENTRY INTO BETHLEHEM BY A SECURITY BARRIER.
ANOTHER CARD FEATURES A MADONNA AND CHILD DRAPED IN A PALESTINIAN FLAG, THEREBY
FALSELY POLITICISING THE NATIVITY SCENE.

IN THE UK THERE ARE TWO PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS, IN LIVERPOOL
AND LONDON. PORTRAYING A FRAUDULENT
MESSAGE THAT BRUTALISES ISRAEL.

THE AMOS TRUST IS DISTRIBUTING A ‘BETHLEHEM PACK’ TO
TRY AND CAUSE CHURCHES TO TALK ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION IN BETHLEHEM AT CHRISTMAS
EVENTS. OF COURSE, THEY WILL FAIL TO MENTION THE FLIGHT OF CHRISTIANS FROM
BETHLEHEM SINCE ISRAEL HANDED OVER CONTROL TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY.

SINCE THEN THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION HAS DROPPED THERE FROM
OVER 80% TO LESS THAN 15%. THEY PREFER, INSTEAD TO PUT OUT THE MAHMOUD ABBAS
VERSION OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY. HIS MESSAGE IS THAT JESUS WAS A PALESTINIAN.

“In Bethlehem, more than 200 years ago, Jesus Christ was
born, a Palestinian messenger who could become a guiding light for millions
around the world. As we Palestinians strive for our freedom, two millenia
later, we do our best to follow his example.”

IGNORING THE FACT THAT JESUS WAS NOT A PALESTINIAN
MESSENGER, WHAT EXAMPLE ARE THE PALESTINIANS FOLLOWING? BUS BOMBINGS, SUICIDE
BOMBERS, ROCKETS AGAINST CIVILIANS, PLANE HIJACKINGS? HE GOES ON,

“Our prayers are with the churches and mosques of Jerusalem
which remind the world of the Arab identity of our occupied capital.”

NOW THAT IS AN INTERESTING STATEMENT WELL WORTH EXAMINING. MAHMOUD
ABBAS HAS PUBLICLY STATED THAT ANY PALESTINIAN STATE WILL BE ‘JUDENREIN’
CLEAR OF JEWS. IS THIS THE NATURE OF THE ‘PALESTINE’ THAT MANY CHRISTIAN
LEADERS ARE SUPPORTING?

ABBAS MENTIONS THE CHURCHES AND MOSQUES, BUT WHAT OF THE
SYNAGOGUES.? HE FORGOT TO MENTION THEM, AS HE FAILED TO MENTION THE JEWISH
TEMPLE TO WHICH JESUS CAME EACH YEAR TO PRAY. FOR HIM THEY DO NOT EXIST. TO
ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WOULD BE TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS AS THE JEW THAT HE WAS WHEN HE
MADE HIS PILGRIMAGE TO THE JEWISH CAPITAL ON THE JEWISH HOLY DAYS. WHEN WAS IT
EVER A PALESTINIAN CAPITAL? NEVER!

IT IS AMAZING TO ME THAT CERTAIN STRANDS OF CHRISTIANITY
SHARE AND THRIVE ON THIS FALSEHOOD.

PREVIOUSLY, DURING THE BRITISH METHODISTS ATTEMPT TO TURN
THEIR ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN INTO A CONSUMER PRODUCT QUESTIONAIRE, I
QUESTIONED JUST HOW FAR THE METHODISTS HAD STRAYED FROM THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
OF THEIR FOUNDING FATHERS, JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. THESE BROTHERS DEEPLY BELIEVED
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT COMMITMENT TO THE RETURN OF THE JEWS TO THE HOLY LAND. IT
WAS ENSHRINED IN SEVERAL OF THEIR HYMNS;

““O that the chosen band might now their brethren
bring

And gathered out of every land present to Zion’s King.

Of all the ancient race not one be left behind

But each impelled by secret grace his way to Canaan find!

We know it must be done for God hath spoke the word

All Israel shall their Saviour own to their first state restored.

Rebuilt by His command Jerusalem shall rise

Her temple on Moriah stand again, and touch the skies.”

HOW FAR THEY HAVE DRIFTED FROM THESE SENTIMENTS TO THE DOGMA OF
TODAY SAYS MORE ABOUT THE METHODISTS THAN IT DOES ABOUT THE JEWISH STATE, JUST AS THE HATEFUL ACTIONS OF CERTAIN CHURCH
LEADERS SAYS MORE ABOUT THEM THAN IT DOES ABOUT ISRAEL, THE ONE NATION IN THE
MIDDLE EAST WHERE THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION HAS RISEN.

HERE IS THE OPEN LETTER I WROTE IN RESPONSE TO CATHOLIC PREACHER,
STEPHEN PITCHARD, WHO ENDORSED THE ANTI-ISRAEL CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION IN
LIVERPOOL AND WHO REFUSED TO ALLOW AN ISRAELI JEWISH PERSPECTIVE TO THIS EVENT;.

Someone sent me your email regarding the refusal of
Stephen Pritchard to have an Israeli perspective on the exhibition in Liverpool
that demonises Israel.

It is particularly hurtful and troubling that he does
so during the Christmas period.

I am not a Christian. I am a Jewish Israeli, but I
would have thought that any caring and practicing Christian would have adopted
an open heart, especially at this spiritual time.

If you are able to bring my message to Mr. Pritchard,
and to others, it would be one of my role as founder of the Netanya Terror
Victims Organisation, and my personal experience of Palestinian terror in helping the victims of those who have, and are
still, suffering from the handiwork of Palestinian terrorists in my hometown.

Netanya is a small coastal town perched on the
clifftops of the Mediterranean Sea. Pritchard may recall the horrendous
Passover Massacre. This took place at the Park Hotel, which is on those
clifftops, when a Palestinian suicide bomber destroyed the lives of people,
including two Holocaust survivors, who had gathered to celebrate the Jewish Passover.

We are located exactly 8 miles from the Arab town of
Tulkarm. This is a 14 minute car ride due east from the main shopping mall that
experienced two separate suicide bombings, one of which almost killed my wife.

These were just three of the many deadly attacks on
innocent civilians perpetrated by Palestinians from Tulkarm and other
Palestinian-controlled areas.

Tulkarm was a place where Israelis, including my
family, used to buy groceries, household materials and goods. The Arabs from
Tulkarm used to work in Netanya in our hotels, markets, shops, motor repair
shops, and on our building site.

That was until they turned Tulkarm into a hotbed of
Palestinian terror.

Netanya suffered over 50 murdered and more than 300
badly injured in a wave of Palestinian terror designed to eradicate the Jewish
state in stages.

That was when Israel built a security fence. Since the
erection of this fence Palestinian suicide bombing has been reduced to zero. No
Israelis have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers since we were forced
to build this security barrier.

98% of that barrier is fence. There are small sections
of high concrete wall. One such section is east of Netanya by Tulkarm. The
reason for this high wall is to prevent Palestinians from shooting at the
vehicles driving up and down Israel’s main 6 highway, as they used to do from
the rooftops of their homes and mosques in Tulkarm, which is located next to this
road..

So to have Pritchard support the notion that our
security barrier, upon which we are dependent for our lives, is somehow a
brutal act is shamefully wrong. And to have Pritchard refuse to hear the truth
is troubling.

What is it in Pritchard that he will not allow the
voice of truth to filter into his public exhibition?

Sadly, it says more about him than it does about
Israel.

May I wish reasonable and open-minded Christians a
very Happy Christmas, and may people like Pritchard use this season to do some
much needed soul searching.

Barry Shaw

Founder of Netanya Terror Victims Organisation,

Netanya,

Israel.

BARRY SHAW IS ALSO THE SPECIAL CONSULTANT ON DELEGITIMIZATION
ISSUES TO THE STRATEGIC DIALOGUE CENTER AT NETANYA ACADEMIC COLLEGE, ISRAEL. HE
IS ALSO THE AUTHOR OF ‘ISRAEL RECLAMING THE NARRATIVE.’www.israelnarrative.com